Awards

• Commended for Kirkus Prize (Nonfiction) 2019

Overview

The seminal rap group A Tribe Called Quest brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces. This narrative follows Tribe from their early days as part of the Afrocentric rap collective known as the Native Tongues, through their first three classic albums, to their eventual breakup and long hiatus. Their work is placed in the context of the broader rap landscape of the 1990s, one upended by sampling laws that forced a reinvention in production methods, the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that threatened to destroy the genre, and some record labels' shift from focusing on groups to individual MCs. Throughout the narrative, poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib connects the music and cultural history to their street-level impact. Whether he's remembering The Source magazine cover announcing the Tribe's 1998 breakup or writing personal letters to the group after bandmate Phife Dawg's death, Abdurraqib seeks the deeper truths of A Tribe Called Quest, truths that--like the low end, the bass--are not simply heard in the head but are felt in the chest. Digging into the group's history, Abdurraqib draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself. The result is as ambitious and genre-bending as the rap group itself.

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9781974951673

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Hanif Abdurraqib is an experienced poet, essayist, and cultural critic. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, and various other journals. His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was named book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, and Oprah Magazine. A Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow, he is also an interviewer at Union Station Magazine. He currently resides in Columbus, Ohio. Ron Butler is a Los Angeles based actor and voice artist with over a hundred film and television credits, which include playing everything from brooding doctors to screwball hipsters. A member of the Atlantic Theater Company, he won an Independent Filmmaker Project Award for his work in the HBO film Everyday People. He works regularly as a commercial and animation voice-over artist and has narrated a wide variety of audiobooks.

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